Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Wake up before it’s too late.
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Many believers are not going to get with doctrine until it is too late.
Then they will get with it later, ISA 29:24; ROM 8:29-30.
When they get into a pressure situation where the time is short, they are absolutely helpless to face disaster.
Bible doctrine is the believer’s source of comfort in time of stress or adversity.
Revive – chajah = to activate, revitalize, to energize, to nourish up, to preserve, to quicken, recover, repair, restore.
Afflicted – anah = to be put down, or become depressed, be humbled, to be humiliated.
Consolations – tanchuwm = the comfort which comes from Bible doctrine or the compassion which comes from God in times of adversity.
PRO 12:25 Anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.
PRO 12:18 There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, But the tongue of the wise brings healing.
JOH 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.
Adversity is used by the Lord to test the believer and to cause the believer to wake up before it is too late.
ISA 48:10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”
Refined means to purify and to cultivate and to polish, and that is what adversity can do for you.
PRO 24:10 If you are slack [careless or sloppy] in the day of distress, your strength is limited.
MAL 3:2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.”
MAL 3:2 – fire represents the way God puts His people through trouble and sorrow and affliction in order to make them pure and remove them from the influence of evil.
ROM 5:3 And not only this, but we also rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation [affliction or hardship], brings about perseverance;
Perseverance = endurance, long-suffering, persistence, or steadfastness.
Enter is not used for salvation but for the beginning of our eternal destiny.
The Lord also uses adversity and affliction in a positive way, which is to draw us to Him.
HOS 5:15 I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction or adversity they will earnestly seek Me.
PSA 119:67 Before I was afflicted or grieved I went astray, but now I keep Thy word.
In PSA 119:75 I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness Thou hast afflicted [plagued] me.
2CH 15:4 But in their distress [anguish trouble] they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him.
PSA 118:5 From my distress [agony, pain, danger] I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place.
A large place – merchab = a place of enlargement, a place of liberty.
PSA 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble [adversity, crisis, misery]; I shall rescue you, and you will honor me.
PSA 86:7 In the day of my trouble I shall call upon Thee, for Thou wilt answer me.
PSA 91:15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and honor him.
The Lord also uses adversity to strengthen us before it is too late.4930
EXO 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out,
For many believers adversity comes from the law of volitional responsibility.
1CO 7:28 But if you should marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.
LUK 10:41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;”
MAT 13:22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
MAR 4:19 And the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
LUK 8:14 And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
LUK 21:34 Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life,
PHI 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
LUK 12:29 And do not seek what you shall eat, and what you shall drink, and do not keep worrying.